Speech #CREC-2017-02-06-pt2-PgS841_t20

So in 2013, as I was saying, Senator Sessions voted against a measure to prohibit discrimination in the workplace based on sexual orientation or gender identity. And similarly, he voted in favor of a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Finally, Senator Sessions' views on immigration are just outside the mainstream. Most Americans want fair, humane treatment for would-be immigrants to the United States, as well as for undocumented immigrants who are already here. Senator Sessions has amply demonstrated that he does not agree with this view. Since he came to the Senate, he has been a leading opponent of bipartisan immigration reform efforts. In 2007 and again in 2013, he was instrumental in defeating immigration reform proposals that had widespread support in Congress and the country. More recently, he has been a key adviser to Candidate Trump and now President Trump on immigration policies, encouraging extreme positions such as a ban on Muslim immigration and harsh treatment of DREAMers, those undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States as young children. I have also had the opportunity to work with Senator Sessions in trying to renew and extend the special immigrant visa program for those Afghans and Iraqis who helped our men and women in the military as we were fighting conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have heard from multiple members of our military who served that these interpreters and these people from Iraq and Afghanistan who worked with them to make sure that they could help keep them safe have saved lives and have made a difference in that military conflict because of the help they provided to our fighting men and women. Yet Senator Sessions, as we were trying to extend that program, was unwilling to allow us to make sure that we could bring them to the United States, with all of the vetting that goes on to make sure that the people who come here are actually people who helped us. He opposed extending that program to allow all of those folks to come here. I believe we need an Attorney General who will not only insist on equal enforcement of the laws but who has a passion for pursuing justice and fairness for all Americans, as well as for those who want to visit or who want to immigrate to the United States. In my view, Senator Sessions has failed to demonstrate that commitment. Indeed, I worry that as Attorney General, Senator Sessions would affirm and encourage Trump's most troubling tendencies, especially with regard to minorities, to women, to immigrants, and to the LGBTQ community. I believe Senator Sessions is the wrong person for the critically important post of U.S. Attorney General.